Several senior HTC employees depart following HTC First disaster

This is not good news at all. I was hoping HTC one would bring HTC out of the freefall they are in. I would hate to be in a situation where we only have 2 choices Samsung or Apple. But it seems the market is fast moving in that direction.

The main problem, for me, is that the device's hardware seemed to be lacking. And HTC continually misses the thing I enjoyed most about my phones through the ages: expandable storage. Even most of my flip-phones had an MMC or microSD card slot. I'm even fine with the company giving 16GB of internal storage and no SD card included, as long as they support SD cards.

I used to feel the same way. I get it. I moved on, but this seriously used to be my number-one dealbreaker.

What you need to consider is that an SD slot (and removable battery, for that matter) are actually pretty big design constraints...you're talking about pretty significant real estate (on the scale of a phone) to make those user-accessible. It seems really easy when you're just looking at a phone from the outside, but anybody who's actually had to lay out an electronics design should understand, at the very least, why you'd be tempted to ditch these features absent strong evidence that they're a driving concern for the bulk of your customers.

This is interesting to me, because I am interested in user-accessible storage and battery for two reasons, both of which I do not expect to be enticing to manufacturers: I don't want to have to replace the entire phone for several years, and replacing/upgrading parts lets me do that.

Catering to this is a longer-term strategy for the mfr: Lose my short term sales (because I am keeping my phone for longer) but earn my loyalty.

Understandably tough for them to balance, and I fear I'm in the minority. Hopefully, BYOD to the carrier of of the user's choice will help make this a viable option for them.

"I've never given any smartphone an editors choice award before, though I daily regret not giving the One S an award of some kind. For the HTC One I'm giving our Editors Choice Gold award, which is our second highest award. The One is an incredibly awesome device."

Someone has to keep pace with Apple's build quality, and it ain't Samsung. HTC arguably out-did Apple in this case, and brought lots of other ideas to the table. The world already has plenty of middling Android handsets.

The HTC One looks great. But ultimately, the phone has to function over at least 2 years. For that to happen, HTC needs to build a phone that has

1. Removable battery. Battery Technology simply isn't there where a sealed battery will work for at least 2 days or 1 day with somewhat heavy use.2. Removable SD card. Maybe when we really can be always connected and when carriers provide unlimited data and we have a 10GBS download speeds, we can get away with it. But we need it now.3. Updates. Updates. Updates. It's ridiculous that we don't even expect to get a new version on the same day that Google releases it. For this, I blame Google more than the manufacturers. But HTC's delayed (if ever) updates is not doing it any favors. It's a sad state of affair that Samsung's months later updates are considered acceptable. HTC needs to get back to getting updates and start getting 3rd party developer friendly like they used to be. XDA got its name from an HTC phone for crying out loud!

I'd love to see HTC turn their skin layer into a non-integrated setup. That being they lay on top of stock and can be disabled.

If they did this, they could turn them into Play Store downloads that are updated by them and can be purchased by anyone if they want it

With this in place, turn their phones into stock Android with their widgets / apps on the phone.

They could then be that manufacture that sends out ASOP updates without carrier approval. To me this is the only way they are going to win back larger market share, by advertising that they get fast updates and then actually do it.

This is something all manufacturers needs to do and something Google should be promoting. I should be able to get the Google experience directly from Google for all phones that come with the Play Store. The manufacturers have to provide the hardware drivers and modems to Google and Google packages them up when they crate a new OS version and allows me to download it directly - if I so choose. That also allows Google to send security updates OTA for those that are content in not updating their phones.

Back in the day, HTC made a ton of carrier-labeled smartphones. My first 3 smartphones were all made by HTC, and while they each had minor issues, they were still pretty groundbreaking at the time.

I would really hate to see HTC fold. They have been a driving force in the industry, and whether you buy their phones or not, their competition has certainly been forcing everyone else to bring their A game.

2. Removable SD card. Maybe when we really can be always connected and when carriers provide unlimited data and we have a 10GBS download speeds, we can get away with it. But we need it now.

This depends entirely on your use case, and I'll make the bold statement that if your use case requires more than 16GB of storage, even absent connectivity, you're an outlier. The scenario in which you need more than 16GB of...well, whatever, movies or music or other files...but also don't have access to a laptop (not for internet, but for additional storage) is pretty rare.

And I say this as somebody who is occasionaly in such a scenario...I make it through with 16GB, but wish I had more, and an SD card slot would be nice. But I grew past the point where I was gonna let it drive my purchasing decision.

EDIT: Here's why I hate downvotes. They replace an actual response...what did that user disagree with? That the scenario is rare? That the use case is an outlier? Are they able to back that up? Or are they just grumblegrumbling and using the downvote to grumble their general disagreement because I'm a poopyhead? We'll never know, because clicking an arrow is easier than crafting a response.

"I've never given any smartphone an editors choice award before, though I daily regret not giving the One S an award of some kind. For the HTC One I'm giving our Editors Choice Gold award, which is our second highest award. The One is an incredibly awesome device."

Someone has to keep pace with Apple's build quality, and it ain't Samsung. HTC arguably out-did Apple in this case, and brought lots of other ideas to the table. The world already has plenty of middling Android handsets.

Ok, but market the heck out of it.

Nokia and Samsung are building share lampooning iPhone owners. Where is HTC's advertising?

"Everything your phone isn't" ads are on TV in the US. That's a good start. They do need to get more accessories into the carriers stores though. I saw tons for GS4, and only 2 cases for HTC One at AT&T.

The success of a company isn't as simple as good product equals success, or good marketing equals success, or good product plus good marketing equals success. There's market timing, relationships with carriers, the relationship with Google, branding, etc. HTC likely failed at multiple points in the whole business. I would hazard a guess that failing to convince international carriers/operators that it was/is a competitive vendor was it's biggest problem, especially in Asia (East Asia, South Asia).

It could never break out of the pack and become a recognizable brand like Samsung, Sony or LG has. Even Nokia, as low as they've become, has a stronger brand recognition than HTC.

This is interesting to me, because I am interested in user-accessible storage and battery for two reasons, both of which I do not expect to be enticing to manufacturers: I don't want to have to replace the entire phone for several years, and replacing/upgrading parts lets me do that.

heh... I expect and use removable storage and batteries, and I STILL upgrade my phone on the day I'm eligible.

The main problem, for me, is that the device's hardware seemed to be lacking. And HTC continually misses the thing I enjoyed most about my phones through the ages: expandable storage. Even most of my flip-phones had an MMC or microSD card slot. I'm even fine with the company giving 16GB of internal storage and no SD card included, as long as they support SD cards.

I used to feel the same way. I get it. I moved on, but this seriously used to be my number-one dealbreaker.

What you need to consider is that an SD slot (and removable battery, for that matter) are actually pretty big design constraints...you're talking about pretty significant real estate (on the scale of a phone) to make those user-accessible. It seems really easy when you're just looking at a phone from the outside, but anybody who's actually had to lay out an electronics design should understand, at the very least, why you'd be tempted to ditch these features absent strong evidence that they're a driving concern for the bulk of your customers.

Moto managed to do just fine with the RAZR Max. In fact HTC did an excellent job with the HTC Legend. http://htcsource.com/tag/htc-legend-rep ... t-battery/. The Legend also had a great digital trackball and the EVO had a kickstand. HTC makes great hardware - Just not all in one phone :-(

Always had the impression HTC phones had bad battery life ever since the Droid Incredible.

And does not help they had manufacturing problems and could not keep up with supply. They could have sold more if they had more. Apple does it the best when it comes to inventory control. Just like a MMO launch, you will never have enough devices at a iDevice launch, but they definitely have gotten better at evening out supply and demand sooner. Helps also they can have pretty favorable supplier contracts.

HOWEVER, when comparing the HTC One X with the Samsung SIII or the HTC One with the S4, there consistently are a couple of issues which for me are showstoppers for HTC, for which I would favour Samsung over HTC:

- Replacable battery- Expandable storage

And recently:- Better Camera.

Now, I'm not in the market for a new phone right now -- but if I would have to choose a phone now, I'd choose for Samsung based on those features, and Samsung's innovation in the software (such as eye-tracking to make sure the phone doesn't rotate when you don't want it to rotate).

HTC should address these issues in their new designs.

And they should try to launch their next flagship way ahead of Samsung - you know, actually launch-and-bring-to-market, not just announce.

The main problem, for me, is that the device's hardware seemed to be lacking. And HTC continually misses the thing I enjoyed most about my phones through the ages: expandable storage. Even most of my flip-phones had an MMC or microSD card slot. I'm even fine with the company giving 16GB of internal storage and no SD card included, as long as they support SD cards.

I used to feel the same way. I get it. I moved on, but this seriously used to be my number-one dealbreaker.

What you need to consider is that an SD slot (and removable battery, for that matter) are actually pretty big design constraints...you're talking about pretty significant real estate (on the scale of a phone) to make those user-accessible. It seems really easy when you're just looking at a phone from the outside, but anybody who's actually had to lay out an electronics design should understand, at the very least, why you'd be tempted to ditch these features absent strong evidence that they're a driving concern for the bulk of your customers.

This is interesting to me, because I am interested in user-accessible storage and battery for two reasons, both of which I do not expect to be enticing to manufacturers: I don't want to have to replace the entire phone for several years, and replacing/upgrading parts lets me do that.

Catering to this is a longer-term strategy for the mfr: Lose my short term sales (because I am keeping my phone for longer) but earn my loyalty.

Understandably tough for them to balance, and I fear I'm in the minority. Hopefully, BYOD to the carrier of of the user's choice will help make this a viable option for them.

That's not even what they're balancing, though I understand how the customer might feel that way.

Again, physically packaging the device is a challenge. Making a user-accessible SD slot or battery takes space, which would either be devoted to other hardware (including a larger battery), or eliminated to shrink total size. This is what drives elimination of it.

Batteries for most phones can be replaced, too. Just not by the user. It costs, but usually much less than a new phone. People forget this is an option. But making it tech-accessible is much easier than making it user accessible, which requires that it be possible both (generally) without tools and also without (significant) risk of damage to other components (by an untrained person).

The thing is, as an outsider of Android, I couldn't tell you why Samsung is doing so good and HTC so poorly. From my impressions, what Samsung makes isn't that special, not bad either, but definitely generic, middle-of-the-road stuff. The phones that HTC makes seem a lot more interesting in that respect so I think they deserve to do better than they're doing right now. It can't just be the Sense crap either, as Touchwiz is even more invasive.

Is it all really just marketing?

Not sure what you mean by invasive, but BlinkFeed (and Facebook Home) are just alien. My mom got an Asus Transformer when it came out. She gets Android, and can easily pick up a Nexus (or a Samsung, Motorola, LG, Sony) in a store and play with it. To her, BlinkFeed is just as alien as Windows Phone. It might draw her attention for being pretty, but in all likelihood she'll buy what's familiar to her.

Sure Samsung may be "generic" and "plasticy". But then, it has that overly saturated OLED screen, a removable (and expandable) battery, an SD-card slot, and flip covers that attach to the removable back. When was the last time you've seen praise for an industrial design with a removable back? Except some people seem to like overly saturated OLED screens and removable backs.

It's frankly not good all around. Samsung is the perfect demonstration that a balls to the wall marketing strategy will be supremely more effective than excellent product quality, or any of the qualities that have been listed previously (removable battery, expandable storage, etc.). On that front Apple and Samsung have all the other companies beat, and the effectiveness of that strategy shows in their sales figures. If the wider market truly demanded for removable batteries and removable SD cards, than phones that have those features would sell more. As they say, you vote with your wallet, so itd be curious to see how many people purchase the Google edition of the Galaxy S4

It's a sad state of affairs when perfectly good classy hand sets (see HTC One, Sony Xperia Z) flounder in the wider market, even though the phone stands up well to the competition on objective fronts.

As much as I hate to admit it, Nokia going with WP7/8 probably differentiated them more in the smartphone market than being a purveyor of high quality Android handsets ever could (though in my opinion, they really should've co-developed Meego and WP7/8 for some real differentiation)

I never owned a Samsung phone so my experience is very limited (helping some friends around in Android). Here are my two main complaints:

1- The look is very much like that of an iPhone, with the big button in the center at the bottom;2- The Back button is on the right side of that big center button when all logic says that a back button has to be on the left (everybody else does it, even Samsung does it on their Windows Phone device).

Besides that. While helping my friend, I got totally lost in their interface. I suppose that was TouchWiz. At least HTC Sense keeps most Android features at about the same place they are in straight Android (like a Nexus device).

Most of my HTC Experience in Android is with Android 2.3/Sense 2, so it might have changed since then. But here in Canada, HTC seems to be doing better than Samsung, anybody has data on this? I seem to see much more HTC devices around than Samsung.

2. Removable SD card. Maybe when we really can be always connected and when carriers provide unlimited data and we have a 10GBS download speeds, we can get away with it. But we need it now.

This depends entirely on your use case, and I'll make the bold statement that if your use case requires more than 16GB of storage, even absent connectivity, you're an outlier. The scenario in which you need more than 16GB of...well, whatever, movies or music or other files...but also don't have access to a laptop (not for internet, but for additional storage) is pretty rare.

And I say this as somebody who is occasionaly in such a scenario...I make it through with 16GB, but wish I had more, and an SD card slot would be nice. But I grew past the point where I was gonna let it drive my purchasing decision.

EDIT: Here's why I hate downvotes. They replace an actual response...what did that user disagree with? That the scenario is rare? That the use case is an outlier? Are they able to back that up? Or are they just grumblegrumbling and using the downvote to grumble their general disagreement because I'm a poopyhead? We'll never know, because clicking an arrow is easier than crafting a response.

I disagree regarding the 16GB is enough...

I have a 64GB card in my phone right now, in addition to it's 16GB of built-in storage.

I use this for storing music (about 15-20 GB) plus photos & movies which I take on the phone, and of which I'm keeping a lot on the device even after I upload it.

I do have a very large dataplan. But I want my music on the device, not in the cloud. The cloud is often not fast enough to deliver me the music, and streaming costs lots of power too... :-)

I might be an outlier, but I feel my use cases are valid enough.

And for me, the lack of external SD card storage is a deal-breaker for any recent HTC phones.

1- The look is very much like that of an iPhone, with the big button in the center at the bottom;

You think? I remember seeing a Samsung ad in a T-Mobile store and thinking, "Wow. That's an iPhone running Android."

Quote:

2- The Back button is on the right side of that big center button when all logic says that a back button has to be on the left (everybody else does it, even Samsung does it on their Windows Phone device).

As a person who regularly switches back and forth between several devices, I appreciate consistency.

At first, each manufacturer did it differently. Then right around the time the Droid X came out, manufacturers started to settle on a standard order for hardware buttons: menu, home, back, search.

This works the best on phones with physical keyboards: since the keyboard slides out to the left, that puts the menu button within easy reach of the thumb while the keyboard is open. Since it's expected that the user hits Menu more than Back, it works out well.

And for phones without keyboards? It's important to be consistent. At one point, I went so far as to root my OG droid and run a program to remap the physical buttons. Then I put tape over them. Having multiple, different hard-button layouts was that frustrating.

The thing is, there is very little that distinguishes these high-end phones from one another. If HTC or anyone else wants to make a come back, they need some differenciation beyond the quality of the aluminium on the back-panel. A real breakthrough for me would-be near DSLR camera-quality. Combined with standard smartphone features such as geo-tagging and cloud upload, that would make me open my wallet.

They tried going for the camera-quality-angle, but it seems they have failed quite miserably.

Samsung S4 gets the honours for best camera quality this round, reviews saying it's on par with the Nokia 808 PureView. Some of these same reviews don't even include the HTC One, because it really just doesn't compete in the same league despite it's "ultra pixels".

No, for really "DSLR like camera quality" they shouldn't go for the "ultra pixel" route. They should follow Nokia perhaps, with the very-high-MP-count route -- to 41MP, and beyond!

Concerning the argument over removable storage. I now have to buy the 32GB version of any phone that doesn't have it. 16GB alone doesn't cut it for me anymore, especially if a good portion is taken up by the firmware. That's because I use my phone as an entertainment device also. Not to mention all the mobile games that are now 1GB. That hurts if you have limited storage and want to download these types of games. Thankfully HTC One didn't skimp out with a 16GB version but offered 32GB as a base. That's a good trend.

Now since Samsung doesn't like Apps2SD, I'd actually have to get the 32GB version of the GS4 too!

2- The Back button is on the right side of that big center button when all logic says that a back button has to be on the left (everybody else does it, even Samsung does it on their Windows Phone device).

They don't have a choice when it comes to Windows Phone. They either put the back button on the left or they don't make the phone at all.

It's going to take some time to regain the good will and mind share they've lost, but it doesn't help that they still think they need HTCSense skins on their phones..

Funny you should mention that, because The HTC First didn't actually have Sense. It was stock Android if you turned off Facebook Home.

good point, BUT it was/is android 4.1 not 4.2. while the gs4 is skinned AND 4.2. I'd imagine most people on this site are like myself in that they would want to have the latest version of android available. AKA AOSP supported device.

2. Removable SD card. Maybe when we really can be always connected and when carriers provide unlimited data and we have a 10GBS download speeds, we can get away with it. But we need it now.

This depends entirely on your use case, and I'll make the bold statement that if your use case requires more than 16GB of storage, even absent connectivity, you're an outlier. The scenario in which you need more than 16GB of...well, whatever, movies or music or other files...but also don't have access to a laptop (not for internet, but for additional storage) is pretty rare.

And I say this as somebody who is occasionaly in such a scenario...I make it through with 16GB, but wish I had more, and an SD card slot would be nice. But I grew past the point where I was gonna let it drive my purchasing decision.

EDIT: Here's why I hate downvotes. They replace an actual response...what did that user disagree with? That the scenario is rare? That the use case is an outlier? Are they able to back that up? Or are they just grumblegrumbling and using the downvote to grumble their general disagreement because I'm a poopyhead? We'll never know, because clicking an arrow is easier than crafting a response.

I disagree regarding the 16GB is enough...

I have a 64GB card in my phone right now, in addition to it's 16GB of built-in storage.

I use this for storing music (about 15-20 GB) plus photos & movies which I take on the phone, and of which I'm keeping a lot on the device even after I upload it.

I do have a very large dataplan. But I want my music on the device, not in the cloud. The cloud is often not fast enough to deliver me the music, and streaming costs lots of power too... :-)

I might be an outlier, but I feel my use cases are valid enough.

And for me, the lack of external SD card storage is a deal-breaker for any recent HTC phones.

Sony Ericsson at least have learned this.

I never said it was invalid, just an outlier, which you seem to realize. I was the same way. Plenty of people venture entirely outside "the cloud" (a term I loathe) regularly (military, offshore, etc), and I totally understand wanting more than 16GB with you. OTOH, a fair percentage of people who go outside the cloud have access to a laptop to store more if ncessary, many that remain are fine with 16GB, etc.

The sales numbers on iPods should be enough to make it clear that wanting 20GB or more of music with you makes you an outlier. As an iPod Classic owner, and somebody who bemoans the treatment that device has gotten, I feel you. But again, the mass market just doesn't care.

I'd wager few of my friends have more than 8GB of music on their phone, if that.

You can disagree that 16GB of space is enough for you, but you need to understand that it is enough for most users. Possibly a couple nines worth of users. So, as I said before...

You can disagree that 16GB of space is enough for you, but you need to understand that it is enough for most users. Possibly a couple nines worth of users. So, as I said before...

HTC has 99 problems, but a lack of removable SD storage ain't one.

At the same time, I'd posit that how much space people actually use or need doesn't necessarily correlate with their buying preferences. Remember, the average consumer is relatively risk-averse.

Consider the following mock scenario:

Quote:

Non-Tech-Savvy Customer: "So how many songs or pictures can I fit on this one?"

Salesperson: "You can few a few dozen games, several hundred photos or songs, or-"

Customer: "What happens if I run out of space?"

Salesperson: "You need to buy a new phone. OR, they also make this larger model..."

Customer: "Oh, I'll take that one!"

Also consider that Apple offers a 128GB iPad now. It seems to me that regardless of actual usage, or whether they can use 'the cloud' or laptops to supplement storage, people simply like having space available.

For what it's worth, I hate the voting system too. While it can help hide trolls quickly, I find it definitely takes away from the overall quality of discussion. Not to mention I've seen a few Reddit-style pun threads being upvoted on Ars since then...

I don't understand why everyone is so focused on HTC. Sony and LG are making some nice phones and have the potential to become competitors with Samsung. Why no discussion of those? I know HTC was the first Android vendor, which seems to inspire a lot of nostalgia, but what's so special about them now? Do people really love aluminum that much?

That's because that isn't the point of the article. The newsworthy thing is that multiple senior/executive level HTC associates are bailing out, not that HTC makes nice hardware.

Now that I can agree with!! I think just as they did away with 8GB as the base, now's the time to get rid of 16GB as a base. Plus flash memory is supposedly cheap, so why are higher increments so expensive?

EDIT: Here's why I hate downvotes. They replace an actual response...what did that user disagree with? That the scenario is rare? That the use case is an outlier? Are they able to back that up? Or are they just grumblegrumbling and using the downvote to grumble their general disagreement because I'm a poopyhead? We'll never know, because clicking an arrow is easier than crafting a response.

It's frankly not good all around. Samsung is the perfect demonstration that a balls to the wall marketing strategy will be supremely more effective than excellent product quality, or any of the qualities that have been listed previously (removable battery, expandable storage, etc.). On that front Apple and Samsung have all the other companies beat, and the effectiveness of that strategy shows in their sales figures. If the wider market truly demanded for removable batteries and removable SD cards, than phones that have those features would sell more. As they say, you vote with your wallet, so itd be curious to see how many people purchase the Google edition of the Galaxy S4

I would have been stoked if Google announced a Google Edition of the HTC One instead of the Samsung Galaxy S4... I absolutely hate the fact the Samsung phones have a menu button, it completely screws up the UI paradigm of ICS/JB.

Torn between the Google Edition of the Galaxy S4 and the HTC One Developer Edition. If the HTC wasn't backordered, my decision may be a little easier...

They could then be that manufacture that sends out ASOP updates without carrier approval. To me this is the only way they are going to win back larger market share

Only geeks care; the average consumer doesn't know or care about OS updates or carrier approval.

No, it wouldn't win them any appreciable share.

This is the axe I grind constantly (as most do with SD/battery), and I'm slowly coming to realize that you're right. Go ahead, poll a couple dozen "average" users (non-IT people, not Ars subscribers, etc) and ask them what version of Android they're even running. See what portion know. Then realize that only a subset of those would care.

EDIT: Here's why I hate downvotes. They replace an actual response...what did that user disagree with? That the scenario is rare? That the use case is an outlier? Are they able to back that up? Or are they just grumblegrumbling and using the downvote to grumble their general disagreement because I'm a poopyhead? We'll never know, because clicking an arrow is easier than crafting a response.

I just gave you another for complaining about downvotes.

And I just gave you an upvote for bothering to post why.

Every now and then I just like to whine about the downvote system, since it seems to have ventured far from the original stated intent. I worry that if we're not careful, we'll see the slashdotization of Ars.

2. Removable SD card. Maybe when we really can be always connected and when carriers provide unlimited data and we have a 10GBS download speeds, we can get away with it. But we need it now.

This depends entirely on your use case, and I'll make the bold statement that if your use case requires more than 16GB of storage, even absent connectivity, you're an outlier. The scenario in which you need more than 16GB of...well, whatever, movies or music or other files...but also don't have access to a laptop (not for internet, but for additional storage) is pretty rare.

And I say this as somebody who is occasionaly in such a scenario...I make it through with 16GB, but wish I had more, and an SD card slot would be nice. But I grew past the point where I was gonna let it drive my purchasing decision.

EDIT: Here's why I hate downvotes. They replace an actual response...what did that user disagree with? That the scenario is rare? That the use case is an outlier? Are they able to back that up? Or are they just grumblegrumbling and using the downvote to grumble their general disagreement because I'm a poopyhead? We'll never know, because clicking an arrow is easier than crafting a response.

Every comment you've posted on this is basically the same as you saying #dealwithitWell we don't want to deal with it. I want a removable battery and an SD slot. Don't include those features? I don't buy your phone. It's that simple. HTC dug their own grave in many ways but these two features were part of the problem. Samsung is not the best manufactured Android phone. HTC was starting to make some really beautiful stuff but I went with Samsung because they offer what I want whereas HTC simply acts like it doesn't matter. You say those two features aren't important but I hear this complaint all the time about certain phones. HTC did this to themselves. If I wanted that kind of phone I'd have bought Apple.

2. Removable SD card. Maybe when we really can be always connected and when carriers provide unlimited data and we have a 10GBS download speeds, we can get away with it. But we need it now.

This depends entirely on your use case, and I'll make the bold statement that if your use case requires more than 16GB of storage, even absent connectivity, you're an outlier. The scenario in which you need more than 16GB of...well, whatever, movies or music or other files...but also don't have access to a laptop (not for internet, but for additional storage) is pretty rare.

And I say this as somebody who is occasionaly in such a scenario...I make it through with 16GB, but wish I had more, and an SD card slot would be nice. But I grew past the point where I was gonna let it drive my purchasing decision.

I used to think that I needed more than 16gb, but I made do with the 16gb on my HTC One X. However, half of that memory died on me several months ago, so now only about 7gb is addressable on my phone. It started out that if I stored more than 7gb, the phone would immediately crash, and bootloop. Now, the phone just refuses to see more than 7gb. So that means when you are done resetting the phone, you have very little space for anything else. If the phone had an SD card slot, I could throw a microSD card in there, and be done with it. Now I need to buy a new phone, as I can no longer encrypt the storage partition, because halfway through the format, the kernel complains of a memory error, and panics, leaving the phone in an unusable state.

EDIT: Here's why I hate downvotes. They replace an actual response...what did that user disagree with? That the scenario is rare? That the use case is an outlier? Are they able to back that up? Or are they just grumblegrumbling and using the downvote to grumble their general disagreement because I'm a poopyhead? We'll never know, because clicking an arrow is easier than crafting a response.

I just gave you another for complaining about downvotes.

And I just gave you an upvote for bothering to post why.

Every now and then I just like to whine about the downvote system, since it seems to have ventured far from the original stated intent. I worry that if we're not careful, we'll see the slashdotization of Ars.

It keeps trolls from dominating conversations (seriously - look for a page one post that was voted down and see if its still being discussed on page three - it almost never happens.) and it makes bad posts disappear so that non-registered voters never see them. It works fabulously.

Edit: Well, there is one post that got a lot of downvotes but is still being discussed on page 3 (and beyond).